Thus World Boxing Organization welterweight champion Manny Pacquiao declared by way of reacting to reports in media partly blaming him should the projected mega-fight not materialize.

“I am meeting with my promoter, Bob Arum on Tuesday and I will insist that the fight with Mayweather be given the preference than the four others in the list I will fight next,” Pacquiao told this writer in Tagalog in a long distance telephone conversation yesterday from General Santos City.

“Whoever the fans want me to fight, I will face him atop the ring. I don’t choose fight. It is my promoter who does because it’s his job. My job is to fight, everybody must realize that,” Pacquiao, a lawmaker, a singer, movie actor, television host and a columnist, emphasized.

“Whoever says I’m ducking this fighter or that fighter, doesn’t know me, or just plainly wants to put me in bad light,” he surmised. “I never dodged from fighting anybody. If I did, I won’t be where I am now.”

“When Arum sits in the negotiation table, he will be laying on the table all the conditions we want, which , everybody knew already are simple. That I will abide by his demand for drug testing. I am even agreeable to get lesser purse just so the fight would push through,” he recalled. “In other words, as far as my side is concerned, there will be no problem.”

“We know, too, that Mayweather has no promoter. He negotiates by himself. So if the fight won’t be realized, it’s no longer because of me,” Pacquiao said.

Hopefully these quotes weren’t taken out of context.

Once again if you believe Pacquiao who just said he would agree to a lesser purse and drug testing to make the fight happen there is only one thing to say.